A Thrift Store Find

I’m a big fan of thrift stores and digging through stuff to find the goods…or sometimes just more stuff. Not a fan of that song though though I like Macklemore’s other songs. It’s one thing to be a bargain hunter at a normal store but thrift shopping is another thing entirely! Not only do you have to dig through piles of old stuff but you have to look past the exterior to find something good and worth saving. The pricing is also completely subjective and sometimes things I know that were cheap in the first place are priced much too high for buying second hand. It’s a different kind of bargain hunting that I have dabbled in but certainly can’t say I’m an expert at!

You never know what you’re going to find at a thrift store and that’s part of the fun! Sometimes you’ll find something really awesome for a few bucks and other times something brand name. My husband isn’t really into going into thrift store but I dragged him into one a few weeks ago. It pays to keep your eye out for things and he did just that. He spied an Oakley watch that had retailed for $1300 a few years ago. The thrift store price? $80! A quick look on Ebay (thanks smartphones!) and he realized that he had found something that we could definitely make some money off of. It eventually sold on Ebay for $370, netting $250 after taxes and fees and the $80 to buy it in the first place. Yeah!

What a find! I think I need to drag my husband into some thrift stores more often! It was definitely something that won’t happen very often but it really makes me like thrifting even more!

Save mula mula
Of course the greatest thing about thrifting is being able to buy things for much less than any regular store. A lot of the stuff in there is junk to the people who gave it away, but it could be totally useful for someone else! A lot of it is super old but can possibly be reworked to give it new life. It takes a lot of digging but if ou find something good you can snag it for a pretty low price.

Keep your eyes peeled for things to resell
This is obviously a harder thing to go into a thrift to try to find but it doesn’t hurt to keep your eyes open. My husband is great for this since he knows a lot of brands and the value of them. I was running round looking at clothing and getting distracted when he spotted the watch. Perhaps I can just take him along and do my thing while he keeps an eye out! Thanks to smartphones its also extremely easy now to look up how much something can sell for.

Hit stores with higher end stock
Makes sense that you wouldn’t go to Goodwill to try to find brand name items for less. The thrift stores in nicer areas will have better finds and while pricier than other thrift stores there will still be a big discount. The other thing is to go to thrift stores that do intentionally stock brand name items more often. There are some that do only do that and you’ll have a better chance of finding better items there.

This makes me want to go thrifting a lot more! I need to get better at spotting finds that I can resell though! I’m okay at digging to find items I would be interested in, but making money is a different matter!